Dow, S&P 500 end up slightly after trade talk news; Apple slips

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Wednesday after news of a fresh round of U.S.-China trade talks, while the Nasdaq fell following a decline in Apple as it unveiled larger iPhones but made just minor changes to its offerings.

The Trump administration has reached out to China for a new round of trade talks as it prepares to activate punitive U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Apple (AAPL.O) shares were down 1.2 percent. The company also unveiled health-oriented watches based on the design of current models.

“Looks like the Street is yawning at Apple’s new iWatch, iOs12 and iPhone offerings,” said Daniel Morgan, vice president and senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta. “This adds to the concerns on tariffs, social media testimony and chips to make it a tough day for tech.”

Shares of fitness device rival Fitbit Inc (FIT.N) fell 6.9 while shares of Garmin Ltd (GRMN.O) lost some earlier gains and were flat after the launch of Apple’s latest Apple Watch.

The S&P technology index .SPLRCT was down 0.5 percent, reversing Tuesday’s gains, with fears of further deregulation also hurting Apple as well as social media names.

Six major Web and Internet service companies, including Apple, are to detail their consumer data privacy practices to a U.S. Senate panel on Sept. 26, raising the specter of the possibility of stricter regulation.

Among the six companies to testify later this month, Twitter (TWTR.N) shares were down 3.7 percent, while Alphabet (GOOGL.O) was down 1.5 percent.

Facebook (FB.O), not among the companies to testify, was down 2.4 percent.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX was down 1.2 percent after Goldman Sachs became the latest brokerage to warn of lower prices for memory chips due to an oversupply of DRAM and NAND chips. Micron (MU.O) slid 4.3 percent, while Applied Materials (AMAT.O) was down 2 percent.